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Oxnard's sweet history often unknown

Mike Nelson, Special to The Star
Published 6:08 a.m. PT Jan. 13, 2017

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Jeff Maulhardt, center, talks recently to Geoffrey Lillich, left, and Marsha Craig about his new book, “Oxnard Sugar Beets” at Bank of Books in Ventura.(Photo: RICHARD QUINN/SPECIAL TO THE STAR)Buy Photo

It’s likely that many residents of Oxnard are aware that their city is named for Henry T. Oxnard, one of the region’s earliest and most successful entrepreneurs.

But how many, including Oxnard natives old enough to be grandparents, know anything about the vegetable and the industry it spawned that made Oxnard — the man and the town — famous?

From the late 1890s to the late 1950s, sugar beets were the crop that brought fame and a name — and jobs, the railroad and numerous other businesses — to what is today Ventura County’s largest city.

The story of the rise and fall of Oxnard’s sugar beet industry is told comprehensively by, logically, local historian Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt in “Oxnard Sugar Beets: Ventura County’s Lost Cash Crop.” As Maulhardt’s 14th book on local history, it embraces a subject that has been mentioned in many of his other works but is largely unknown to many local residents.

“A lot of people don’t know that this industry was instrumental in establishing the city,” noted Maulhardt, a fifth-generation Oxnard native, retired social studies teacher and descendant of two farming families that helped create the local sugar beet industry.

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Oxnard resident and author Jeff Maulhardt signs a copy of his book, “Oxnard Sugar Beets” at Bank of Books in Ventura recently.(Photo: RICHARD QUINN/SPECIAL TO THE STAR)

“And I knew of the city’s connection to sugar beets through my family and others, but I always wanted to know more about the history — and to share it with others,” he said.

The Maulhardt and Borchard families had been farming in the region for 30 years, when Albert Maulhardt, Jeff’s great grandfather’s cousin, and John Edward Borchard, whose son Henry was Albert’s St. Vincent College classmate, discovered Ventura County’s favorable conditions for growing sugar beets, a potentially lucrative crop, as the 19th century neared its end.

“Albert planted sugar beets in about 50 different plots throughout the county to see where they grew best,” said Maulhardt, “and almost all of them did well.”

At the time, he said, the major California producer of sugar beets was in Chino.

“But by 1896, the sugar content of the beets in Oxnard was higher than that in Chino and that drew people here,” Maulhardt said.

The most important person to arrive, at Albert Maulhardt’s and John Borchard’s invitation, was sugar mogul Henry Thomas Oxnard who in Minnesota had founded what is today American Crystal Sugar Company. Impressed with what he found, Oxnard helped finance a $2 million sugar factory that opened in August 1899, capable of processing 2,000 tons of beets daily.

“There had been some discussion with Claus Spreckels, who then owned a large sugar processing facility in Watsonville, about establishing a factory here,” said Maulhardt. “But the Oxnard deal was the best.”

Before long, sugar beets were a leading crop in the agriculture-friendly region. Production at Henry Oxnard’s Pacific Beet Sugar Company — soon renamed American Beet Sugar Factory and then American Crystal Sugar Co. — was supported by an influx of Mexican, Chinese and Japanese labor, and a new Southern Pacific railroad line reaching into the area.

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Author Jeff Maulhardt brought a sugar beet with him to a signing of his new book, “Oxnard Sugar Beets,” at Bank of Books in Ventura recently.(Photo: RICHARD QUINN/SPECIAL TO THE STAR)

New businesses and housing ensued, and the city’s skyline included the factory’s dual smokestacks near Wooley Road, not far from today’s Five Points area.

But following World War II, the industry declined, owing to farmers’ desire for more profitable yields — citrus, walnuts and “row” crops — that were not as labor intensive and often could generate more than one harvest per year.

The lima bean industry, which preceded sugar beets, remained a major agricultural industry during and after the sugar beet era, said Maulhardt, noting that “farmers are always looking for another crop to make good money on.”

At 3 p.m. on Oct. 26, 1958, the American Crystal Sugar Company blew its final whistle at the Oxnard plant, closing a six-decade chapter that had seen nearly 40 million, 100-pound bags of sugar produced in Oxnard. By then, only 25 percent of the sugar processed at the plant came from locally grown sugar beets.

The factory itself was torn down in July 1959. All that remains is a warehouse and office building, now used by other businesses.

Maulhardt researched his book through local libraries, newspaper archives and his own vast personal photo collection.

“As I got into the project, relatives of those who worked in the industry came forward to tell me their stories," he said. “And that’s significant because it’s part of who we are as a community.

“When I was teaching, I always brought local history into my classroom. Many are surprised to hear, for example, that Colonia was once 44,000 acres of farmland, not just a few blocks of houses and small businesses," Maulhardt said. "My grandfather was a Colonia farmer. So through history, we discover that we have more in common with each other than we realize. That’s why we share stories.”